Archetype John Mayer X Review: can Neural DSP Deliver Superior Tone and Playability?

I really didn't think I was trying to buy more Neural DSP plugins. I have their Soldano SLO-100 and Archetype Gojira X plugins, so I have already given them a fair bit of my change and gotten some solid guitar tone options in return, albeit concentrated in the high-gain department. But when I saw they announced an Archetype: John Mayer X plugin, I found myself wincing and reaching for the buy button.

This product naturally lives amongst several paradoxes, and I can't review it without mentioning (at least some of) them. The JHS Pedals youtube channel has a good explanation of what they've coined the "John Mayer Paradox." Essentially, John Mayer's live rigs can be huge to cover sounds from his career, but he will also still sound like John Mayer with 3 pedals as a guest. Because it is about the player and technique.

Besides the "John Mayer paradox," there's also a price paradox here. The sticker price is at $198 US at time of writing, although it seems like Neural DSP runs sales almost constantly on their products. $200 can go a long way towards buying a decent physical amp, so this is a no doubt a pricey product. We want to avoid lighting money on fire here if possible. And yet, the gear simulated here is pricey. The "Smooth Operator" Amp is based on a ~$150k Dumble.

People are going to want plenty of parameters, but you also shouldn't have to have John Mayer's tone skills to dial in this tone ecosystem.

So I will evaluate this plugin from a few areas to make an overall buy/pass recommendation:

1. Does it make me feel like John Mayer effortlessly?

2. Is a good UX for tone and making John's tools seamless for us mortals? (to a large extent, "tone" itself is cheap)

3. Does it sound good in a mix? Do the previous 2 compound into making this something that actually opens up my own creativity more?

Neural DSP pulled out all the stops in terms of inviting other guests to make presets, but I think that is kind of irrelevant to the value that people are going to be after here. I think people want the tones approved by John. I have enjoyed his tone and improvisation with Dead and Company a lot. So let's jump into the review!

The Toys

There's a lot of stuff here, but it is also slimmed down vs. the actual universe of gear that John would use in a full maximalist pedalboard for a show. After all, there are 5 pedals (a good selection but again not a maximalist board for John). I think the idea in general is to give people a "greatest hits" collection of John's iconic gear.

The 3-in-one amp is definitely one of the highlights. And the individual amps are interesting and worth exploring on their own.

One interesting (but not world-changing) pedal is an overdrive that lets you switch between Tube Screamer and BluesBreaker circuits on the same pedal. I think another is supposed to be a Klon. I don't feel qualified to say how good of models these are of the real pedals; hopefully some other creator will cover us there. And I'm not sure it matters. Perhaps the pedal isn't supposed to be a Klon, but a Klon as it would exist on John's dream pedalboard.

There's also a unique tremelo/reverb unit simulated. There is still more for me to dive into with this, but it sounds great!

Player's notes

• Responds interestingly/realistically to pickup changes. In HSS config, switching from middle to the bridge Seymour Duncan Distortion really dirties things up (without clipping at the interface at all)

• Made me feel like playing some weird fingerpicking pattern that I never did before when I first plugged in the night that I was working on finalizing this review

• Once I was was into my playing with the default settings (and various John-approved defaults), I didn't really feel the need to interrupt my play to dial stuff in

• When you are in the 3-in-one amp mode, it avoids overwhelming you with all the controls for each individual amp

• "Bypass" switch lets you turn off amplified section, opening up the speakers to being used standalone. This means that I can record my preamp tone from my tube amp w/ John's simulated speaker cabinets (like I demoed with the Gojira plugin in this article)

And the initial impression that I posted on BlueSky was definitely positive:

Playing in a mix

I recorded some bass to go along with some "psychedelic rock" drums from the Logic Pro "session drummer," and I thought it would be a good backing track for testing the plugin in a mix. And since I've been up kind of late tonight playing various guitars and writing other articles for this site, this also serves as a stress test of the plugin's tone being inspiring enough to help me get a decent enough take quickly.

I jammed along with my bass and drums for a take without recording. I explored a few motifs that I thought were interesting. It was a lot of different stuff from a lot of the same old pentatonic crap I've been playing again and again. So I decided to hit record and see what came out. Here is what I came up with:

I like this sound. I used the middle pickup on my HSS Charvel Pro-mod and used a touch of compression from my SP Compressor before going into my interface (which I've explained further in this article). You should listen to examples from other creators too, but I am satisfied with this plugin as a real recording tool.

Verdict

I rate this a buy! For clean and low-gain/overdriven sounds, I think a lot of players are going to be really happy with this. I think it offers a good combination of tweakability while also providing John Mayer-approved sounds turn-key. Countless times already, I've found myself getting into licks I've never really played before making weird faces like John does.

Most of my guitars are aesthetically "metal" and "shred" so this plugin's ability to help me tap into a bluesier, more Mayer-like side of my personality shouldn't be understated.

This plugin is a lot of fun with anything Stratocaster-ish for sure! At the same time, this isn't any sort of miracle that will transfer John Mayer's extensive experience to you. There isn't some secret sauce here that will make you a guitar god. I think players will enjoy this product if they can come to grips with that, and I reckon that the "John Mayer paradox" is something that should make a lot of sense to a mature player.

The "Three-In-One" amplifier might seem slightly gimmicky to some, but is nice to be able to get that kind of sound without DAW wizardry (or at least extra clicks/effort). And with these plugins, you also have to look at them in the context of your recording/writing workflow and what's actually added.

I hope this isn't the new normal in terms of pricing from Neural DSP, but that might be too much to ask for. You are getting multiple high-quality amp sims in this package.

For many, the price might make it a question of "how high of a priority is it?" rather than "should I buy it now?" If you don't have an interface yet, that also makes the entry cost steeper and makes you answer tougher questions about what you want out of your gear. They offer a 14 day free trial, so you may as well try it out if you are tempted. I hope this article helps a little though, because it seems like there is never enough time in those 14 day trials for all the recording, shootouts, and experiments you want to get in before buying!